Now this is what you call a mechanical calculator.
This is the Babbage Difference Engine No. 2, which
was at the museum for 7 years and now is going to go back to its rightful owner.
The most incredible mechanical calculator ever made.
These are the number wheels. Lots of numbers.
The guy was slightly nuts. He could have made a smaller one, couldn't he?
The actuators section.
And the vegetable oil.
That's the printing mechanism for the results.
The printer part on its own has as many pieces as the rest of the machine.
I understand that originally the crank was to go in there,
but the load was so high that they had to add another gear to demultiply
the force and put the crank right here. That's not from the original plan, one of the few
small modifications they had to make to bring the thing to reality.
- I have been in and out of this thing for so much.
- Oh, no, no, no, you are a celebrity Ed. - I never had the nerve to crank it
- This is your last chance before it goes! I have to say it's an intimidating crank.
And I'm told you have to crank it just the right way, if you go too fast it doesn't like
it, too slow it does not like it. - It's a very dynamic load. Easy now, hard
then. - There are so many things to drive.
They'll try to make it print today, which they have never done before. It's about time,
because the machine is going away. So they brought the water and are shaking the ink
over there.
It's a first. Never tried it before.
- do you see any sign of ink? - Yes, we sure do!
- that might take a little while for the ink to spread
There you go! There is something pretty about its imperfections.
Here is the man himself. Half genius, half crazy.
- What a beast, what a beast.